Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen was the slowest off the blocks and turned for home in third place in the 200-meter individual medley Tuesday … and won in 2:07.57, which broke the Olympic record she set in the semifinals. She received her gold medal, watched as the red flag with yellow stars was raised, listened to the “March of Volunteers” national anthem, waved to the crowd and headed for the medalists’ news conference.

Where the first question was about doping.

“Of course, I think that is a little unfair to me,” Ye said through an interpreter. “In other countries, other swimmers have won multiple medals and no one says anything. Why do people criticize me for winning multiple medals?”

Part of it is that she’s 16. Part of it is that she also won the 400 individual medley in a world-record 4:28.43. Part of it is that she swam the final 50 meters faster than men’s gold medalist Ryan Lochte did (28.93 to 29.10 seconds). Part of it is that her personal best in the 400 IM before London was five seconds slower. Part of it is that performance-enhancing drugs work better on women than men.

Part of it is that she’s from China.

And part of it is that it’s swimming.

“Any time someone has looked like superwoman in the history of our sport, they have later been found guilty of doping,” John Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association and one of the sport’s most vocal doping watchdogs, told the Guardian newspaper. “That last 100 meters (in the 400 IM) was reminiscent of some old East German swimmers for people who have been around for a while.

“It was reminiscent of the 400 individual medley by a young Irish woman in Atlanta.”

That was Michele Smith de Bruin, who came out of nowhere to win three gold medals at the 1996 Olympics and faced the same skeptical news conferences after each one. Two years later she was caught tampering with a urine sample — reportedly pouring whiskey in it — and banned for four years.

There also were the seven Chinese swimmers who tested positive for the designer steroid DHT at the 1994 Asian Games, two years after winning nine women’s swimming medals at the 1992 Olympics. And the Chinese swimmer caught smuggling vials of human growth hormone into Australia ahead of the 1998 World Championships.

Fool me once …

China has vowed its athletes are clean now and subject to regular testing. Ye is also at an age when swimmers typically make big drops in times, although generally not into world-record territory or recording faster splits than male gold medalists. She started swimming at age 7 after she was flagged as a potential athlete by kindergarten teachers and ultimately was sent to a state-sponsored sports school in Hangzhou.

Ye said she trains five hours a day, 2½ in the morning, 2½ in the afternoon.

Still, swimmers and coaches from other nations initially took a cynical tact toward her performances. Defending Olympic champion and world-record holder Stephanie Rice of Australia called her closing 400 IM split “out of control.” American Caitlin Leverenz, the bronze medalist Tuesday, had said “I don’t think people are crazy to point fingers.”

By Tuesday, though, everyone was saying the right things. U.S. Olympic Committee officials were pointing out that Leonard is not part of its delegation. Rice walked away from reporters without answering when asked about Ye. A USA Swimming press officer stepped in when Leverenz was asked about the doping speculation surrounding Ye, saying: “I’m not going to let her (answer that).”

International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said: “We need to get real here. These are the world’s best athletes competing at the highest level. We’ve seen all sorts of records broken all over the place.”

Ye smiled as question after question in her news conference referenced doping.

“I want to thank my coaches and my teammates,” she said. “They’ve been supporting me and helping me a lot. They’re the people who can make me strong. That’s why (the drug talk) is not affecting me that much.”